


Solid Ground

by EtherealElfling



Category: Naruto
Genre: A/B/O, Accidental Bonding, Age Difference, Alpha Maito Gai | Might Guy, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Angst and Tragedy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bonding, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Lee had a miscarriage, Lee’s mate is still alive, M/M, Mating, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Miscarriage, Omega Rock lee, Psychological Trauma, Slow Burn, Trauma, a/b/o dynamics, abandoned mate, losing a mate, tenten loses her mate, theyre in love but they’re hurting alone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtherealElfling/pseuds/EtherealElfling
Summary: Gai is mated and alone. He’s deep into retirement and feeling the loss of his mate even more acutely as he sees glimpses of Lee around town, at the edges of his life, always turning away.Lee has loved Gai for as long as he can remember, and managed to lure Gai into mating with him during his first heat. Lee was so pleased with his catch until the Chunin exams. After the trauma from the exams (some that even Gai doesn’t know about), being around his mate is a constant reminder of trauma Lee is trying so hard to forget. So Lee just...leaves. Removes himself from his mate’s life.This is the story of two hurting men learning to love again.*to clarify! The underage tag is from the past, they’re both adults in this fic aside from flashbacks!
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Rock Lee/Maito Gai | Might Guy, Rock Lee/Tenten, Shizune/Tsunade (Naruto)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10





	Solid Ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mendelynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendelynn/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Don't let me go](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24624109) by [Mendelynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendelynn/pseuds/Mendelynn). 



> Hey y’all! Reminder that the underage tag is for flashbacks to their first and only time they mated. Lee tricks Gai into it and is very proud of his mate. Gai is ashamed at his own lack of control of his instincts. This issue makes a bit more sense if you read the inspiration for this fic which is linked further down:  
> @medelynn’s Don’t Let Me Go 
> 
> I am determined to give my boys a happy ending! They both deserve it ;-;
> 
> :D  
> ~EthEl

The scent, so familiar, hits him like a punch to the gut. Gai inhales greedily, silently. Even tainted slightly, he can tell. He knows that scent. 

The orange he had been inspecting slips from loosened fingers, bounces off his leg, and rolls past the wheels of his chair. 

He's given up pretending that it isn't his favorite scent in the world months ago. He misses it with every cell in his body, despite the pain it brings. 

The scent swoops by and there he is. Scooping the stray orange from the dirt. He looks so thin. He isn't wearing even a single stitch of green anymore. 

"Here you are, sir." Lee presses the fruit back into Gai's frozen fingers, their fingers brush barely. Gai will think about that touch weeks from now. 

He'd called him "sir." Sir. Never in the decades he's known Lee had he ever called Gai...

"Thank you, Lee." Gai tried to keep the hurt out of his voice, but the lack of his usual booming volume betrays him. 

Gai stares at his mate's downcast eyes, willing him to look up and say SOMETHING. Even just a "hello" or acknowledgment of his ex-sensei, ex-friend, or ex-ANYTHING. 

Lee turns away never looking anywhere even close to Gai's face. 

The crackling pain in his chest feels almost as painful as the first time. 

"—Lee..." the omega stops. Gai takes that as encouragement. "...Lee, won't you come to dinner? I will make our favo—er—some curry."

Lee doesn't turn around. Doesn't raise his voice. Doesn't gesture as he used to. Everything is subdued. Suppressed. "Thank you, sir, but I'm afraid I must decline."

And he's gone. Swept away in the crowds. 

Gai reaches up and presses a hand to his mating mark that is twinging with the scent of his mate still fresh in his nose. 

The fruit stand seller gives him the orange for free. Gai thanks him, wishing he could pretend it was because the fruit had been dropped. 

He hates to see pity in people's eyes. 

It's too close a reminder to his childhood, too close to those months after his release from the hospital. Too close to yet another defeat in his life. 

Gai wonders if maybe this time those outing looks are right. Maybe he really did lose his mate forever. 

He leaves the market quietly, thinking, rolling the orange between his fingers as he rolls himself out of the crowds. 

He's almost too caught up to notice Tenten watching from the shadows of a weapons stall or notice the civilians part around him at his unusually somber mood. 

But he's a shinobi by instinct, retired or not. Cursed to notice everything. 

As he passes the weapons stall, his nose catches the scent of Lee once more, mixed with his other surviving student. He doesn't look up. 

His stomach churns as his body rebels against the wrongness of the mixed scent. He shoves the sensation away, buries it deep to rest next to carefully locked away bitterness that he has nowhere to direct but at himself. 

He wasn't good enough for Lee. He just has to...accept that. 

He makes his way back to his apartment, taking the long route. Passing the memorial stone. 

He stops. 

"Good afternoon, Neji." Gai has long since dropped the theatricality he used to love to exude around his students. It has no place in death. No place in the aftermath. No place among students who refuse to even look him in the eye. "I saw Lee in the market today..." he rolls the orange between both palms. "...and Tenten. They seem... happy" Gai lies. 

He's not sure why. It kicks up an anxious tick under his skin. "No, not happy. But they smelled of each other so maybe they can be one day. Without us." 

He rolls the orange one last time between his palms and places in front of Neji's name. "I know you have moved on to a better place than here—" he breaks off with a laugh that is just a touch bitter before he locks that away again. "—but maybe, my friend, if you have a moment..." he reaches out and touches the orange resting bright against the gray stone. "...maybe you can help guide me to gain closure with Lee. Help me see that he's truly happy so that I might be able to...move on." He chokes the words out as unexpected tears sting his eyes. 

It's been years. He should not still be so affected. 

He blinks away the blur, brushing a last touch against the orange before turning himself around and wheeling home: faster now that he is no longer holding onto the fruit. 

~~~

Tenten finds Lee mid-anxiety attack in a nearby alleyway. 

"Lee!" She rushes to his side. "Can I touch you?" Always a good idea to ask that to a panicking shinobi. 

Lee nods, half-choking on a hiccup as he struggles to breathe. 

Tenten grabs his hands. "Breathe with me. Ready?" And she inhales long and slow, the stuttering echo of breath following her command. She holds it for one, two, three, four, five... and exhales through the count of eight. Lee's exhale turns into a sob at six. 

"Again." Tenten says calmly, squeezing his wrapped fingers tightly, giving him sensation to ground himself. 

It isn't until the lunch rush outside their isolated alley thins considerably that Lee is back in control. 

"Come on, Lee. Let's go home." She helps him to his feet and tucks in close to his hip. 

They walk in silence for a while, Tenten's grocery bags filling the silence with their crinkling. 

Lee grabs one and speaks. "He asked me to have dinner with him."

Tenten's grip on his arm tightens, but she says nothing, letting him talk. 

"I almost...I almost said yes." Lee sniffs and Tenten keeps her eyes forward. "I miss him so much. It's been...years. And I—" he breaks off in a sob and Tenten gently pulls the bag from his hand, setting both of them down. 

"Come here." She pulls him into a hug and he tucks into it, making himself smaller to rest his chin on her shoulder. "You know...you could have—" and she doesn't finish the sentence. His whole body as tense and still as the ground beneath their feet. "—sorry."

"Let's go get Metal." He unfolds from her embrace and grabs both bags, striding off toward the Yamanaka flower shop. 

"Right." Tenten stuffs down a flare of irrational anger. 

He's hurting still. Don't push him. Even though he can't possibly know what he has at his finger tips. 

Tenten grits her teeth and tries to push the anger down again. 

What I would give to have Neji here—a second chance to love him.

She hurries after Lee in silence. 

~~~

They make it back to the tiny apartment and unload the groceries into Lee's fridge. 

"Will you be staying for dinner tonight?" Lee asks, ever the polite host. 

"No." Tenten's voice is cold and she sets Metal down on the changing station table outside the bedroom. It takes her all of thirty seconds to extract the boy from his soiled diapers and replace them with a fresh one. 

Metal gurgles happily and grabs at her flying fingers as she works. She gives him a kiss on the tummy when she finishes and he laughs. That pulls a smile out of her. 

"Tenten. I'm sorry you had to deal with—"

"Don't. Do not ever apologize for anxiety attacks. You know better by now."

"Yes. But that's not what I was apologizing for."

"...this time." Tenten mutters. 

Lee nods, a bit sheepishly before his face sobers again. Tenten hates that look. She misses the ever-present joy that he used to carry. 

"I'm sorry that I can't seem to take hold of the life that you so clearly wish you could have."

And it's so blunt that something in Tenten snaps. "Shut up. I swear if you breathe another word, I'll put you through the window."

Lee stops, wide-eyed. Ever so ignorant of how his words can hit. 

"I'll never forgive you if you spend the rest of your life avoiding your STILL-LIVING mate. Now I don't care if it takes you another year or more to work it out, but if you open your mouth and tell me that you've given up on him, I'm taking Metal and even Kakashi's pack won't be able to find us."

She has a kunai to his throat and he's pressed against the far wall and Metal is fussing. She slips the knife back up her sleeve and turns to their son. "...no. I'm sorry. That isn't fair. I shouldn't have drawn on you. And I could never take him from you." She plays with the tips of Metal's toes until he's gurgling happily again.   
"I'm sorry, Lee. I shouldn't have said that. You grieve. You work to heal. And when you are ready, we will break our arrangement and you will go home to him as it always should have been."

A sob rings out behind her and she barely turns before she has an armful of Rock Lee for the second time that day. 

She smooths his hair, staring blankly at the pale yellow walls. How does the one with the living mate get to grieve more than the one with the dead mate? 

It isn't fair, but she would rather go missing-nin than make this about her again. 

After all, grief is for the living, and Tenten hasn't felt alive in a very long time. 

~~~

Gai wakes up early, body used to decades of training he can now only half partake in. He puts a kettle on the stove and starts on his physical therapy exercises. By the time the kettle is whistling, he's only halfway done. 

Gai would never admit it, but even now he can't stand slow stretches and other slow exercises of the sort. His abilities may be borne of working the long haul, but he can't stand being still for too long and stretching is exactly that. 

He pours the water and does handstand pushups against the wall, legs dangling, mostly useless, as he waits for it to steep. He relishes the burn in his arms. 

He completes the rest of his stretches and indulges in a few more reps of pull ups and other arm/core-only workouts between sips of steaming tea. 

He has Tai-chi lessons to guide today at three. 

He glances at the clock. 6:30 a.m.

It's going to be a long day. 

He decides on a visit to Neji to pass some of the time. 

Gai makes his way into town, swinging by the Yamanaka flower shop where he runs into Ino, on her day off from the hospital. She's bouncing a kid on her hip as she fusses over the flowers. 

"Good morning, Ino!" Gai wheels up the slight ramp and stops in the entrance. 

Ino turns. "Ah. Gai! Good morning! How're you doing today?" She's already making her way to the sunflowers and Gai moves to follow on instinct, eyes locked on the child. Metal. Metal is here. Their son. 

Gai clips the edge of a floor vase and is forced to stop at the entrance to the aisle Ino is down. It is too narrow for his wheelchair to fit. 

"...I'm doing well. Still in the Springtime of my Youth..." he barely puts any effort into the habitual response. Metal looks like Lee. 

What if one day he and Lee could have...

But that's a dangerous thought and Ino is talking to him. 

"—so embarrassing! We really need to updated the layout of the store to be more accessible. So sorry. Ino shows him five sunflowers tied in twine and as he backs up to let her through, she snags a few gladiolus flowers that Gai used to purchase before he started coming in for sunflowers instead. 

Gai hands over the correct amount for the sunflowers. "Hello there, Metal. You look just like your father."

Metal gurgles at Ino's hip and grabs at the bright yellow petals as Ino hands them to Gai. Gai smiles and removes a flower from the twine. 

"For him and his parents. Anonymous." Ino nods carefully before taking it back. 

"Gai," she says, just as he maneuvers his way around to leave. He twists around to look. "For the inconvenience. We'll move everything around by the weekend. It's long overdue. And if I have to get the Hokage to lend some shadow clones...well, it won't be hard." She has a certain glint in her eye that does not bode well for Naruto, but Gai is too touched to think on it. 

"Thank you, Lovely Ino. I am very honored that you think of me."

Ino flushes and looks down to fuss over Metal who is still grabbing at sunflower petals dusting the front counter. "Gai. We would do anything for you. You're a hero and you deserve the world."

Gai laughs. He can't help it.

A hero. Him. 

As if opening the Eighth Gate wasn't an escape. As if it wasn't him trying his best to win, or at least die so he didn't have to face the failure of failing to save everyone. 

And who is the "we" that she says will do anything for him? The only two in his life that he longs to connect to again would rather switch restaurants than sit in the same place as himself. 

It'd happened more times than he could count. He'd seen Tenten and Lee entering some place or another where he was already eating, and Tenten would spot him immediately and steer Lee out. 

It hurt every time. 

"Thank you for the kind words, Lovely Ino. Give my regards to Sai." He manages to not sound bitter and it itches at him, but it means that Ino's face is uncreasing from her worried pinch and she won't do anything more than wave him goodbye. 

Metal gurgles as Gai exits and something twists tighter in his chest. 

~~~

Gai stops first in front of his father's grave to place the gladiolus' down. He says nothing. It's been decades. There's not much more to say. He flicks an errant leaf off the marker and moves on. 

The orange is still there. Right in front of Neji's name where he left it. But not how he left it. It's peeled very peculiarly with every slice still nestled in the peel, but separated. 

It looks...It looks like...

Gai twist around in his chair, scanning for any sign of other offerings, but the cemetery workers have done their job everywhere but here. The place is empty—blank as it is each morning, offerings cleared away for the morning grievers. But the orange...

The peeled orange looks like a lotus. 

Gai almost touches it, but doesn't dare. 

He leaves without a word to his former student, sunflowers sitting beside the orange.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment to let me know what you think so far! I thrive on feedback, it inspires a lot of the direction of where I take my stories ;) 
> 
> :D  
> ~EthEl


End file.
